


Gardening with Children

by Duckgomery



Series: This Old House [3]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Bunny is to fun to mess with, Gen, Jack's a little shit, Sandy and Pitch are mature, florist Bunny, responsible adults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 12:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duckgomery/pseuds/Duckgomery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A day out in the garden is always fun, at least that was how Bunny thought it would be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gardening with Children

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the slight delay with this series, was away for the weekend at Waicon, and recovering. On the plus side, have a mass update, and take solace in that this series actually has a plan that I'm following.  
> WOOOOOO.

                Bunny had had enough of that boy.

                Here he was, trying his best to keep the small back garden up to his meticulously high standards. As the owner of a small florist, he had a reputation to uphold after all.

                And that was why Jack took it upon himself to poke the sensitive buttons that was Bunny’s pride. He made it all too easy to resist.

                The fresh faced young man gave a look of pure innocence as Bunny let out a roar of frustration, stomping on over to the shade of the tree that Jack was sprawled out under.

                “I know it was you, Jack. Where did you hide it? And don’t play dumb with me, this just reeks of your brand of trouble making,” Bunny growled, glaring down at the boy.

                “I haven’t the slightest what you mean, Cottontail. As these two exceptional gentlemen may testify, I’ve been here the whole time.” Jack indicated over to Sandy, who waved back from his position on the bench by the backdoor, before turning his attention back to the book he’d previously been reading. Pitch wouldn’t be happy to see the condition of his once pristine, first print edition book, but that was a problem for later.

Speaking of Pitch, he raised a hand in acknowledgement before returning his attention to his dwindling cigarette, smoke twining around his spindly form.

Bunny narrows his eyes in suspicion, his every instincts telling him that Jack was behind the disappearance of his gardening tools, yet here were two mature and trust worthy adults testifying to the trouble maker’s lack of guilt.

Well, Sandy could be trusted. He was a sweetie.

Pitch on the other hand. There was something about the pallid man that just rubbed Bunny the wrong way.

“I don’t know what you’re playing, mate, but I’ve got my eye on you, we clear?” Bunny warned, his arms crossed. From his position, the Australian simply dwarfed Jack’s substantially slighter frame. None the less, Jack wasn’t fazed in the slightest by this attempt of intimidation.

“Like the sky on a calm winter day, not the slightest chance of clouds.” Jack flashes a smile up before returning his attention to his text books spread about him, Bunny already seemingly forgotten.

With a huff, Bunny snaps around and goes back to the section of garden he’d been working on. He’d recently gotten in a new shipment of buds, and seeing how they were doing well in his shop, he thought he’d try them in the yard.

Pulling out the previous flowers would have been a lot easier if he had his trowel though.

As he went to tough it out, using his hands in absence of the appropriate tool, a glint catches his eye.

Who would’ve thought it was there all along?

Feeling a tad stupid at his previous outburst and accusation, Bunny decides to keep his discovery quite. No use giving these guys ammunition against him.

Maybe he had to stop jumping to conclusions about things, especially concerning Jack.

The boy in question looks up from his homework and over to Sandy.

The plump man gives a wide smile and a thumbs up.

Even Pitch cracks a grin, though he tries his best to hide it. 

After making sure that Bunny is not looking at any of the three, Jack holds up two fingers.

The two, mature, responsible, adults nod their heads in recognition.

Phase two was a go.

Jack had a way with the occupants of the house, able to bend their wills to suit his with little effort. What made this all the better was that unlike some other people, Sandy and Pitch didn’t need their arms to be twisted to achieve results.

They were Jack’s favourite partners in crime.

Actually putting phase two into motion required some patience, since timing was all important.

Bunny leaned back to survey his hard work, wiping off his sweat drenched brow in satisfaction. The arrangement of the plants really complimented the various coloured flowers starting to bloom among them. Give it a few weeks and they’d look amazing.

Proud of a hard mornings work, Bunny dusted off his knees and hands before heading inside the substantially cooler house. It was a scorcher of a day after all, especially after all that manual work. He deserved a nice, long break for lunch before he got to finishing the smaller tasks that needed doing.

Little thought went into what Jack and the others were up to, sitting outside all morning for a reason that was never quite established. How many cigarettes did Pitch go through anyway?

That was Bunny’s critical mistake.

And now the fun could begin.

When Bunny walked back out, no more than an hour later, his drink bottle fell to the ground, water spilling out of the open lid.

His meticulously arranged flowers had been shifted, an atrocious clashing of colours in an anything but neat formation, with clumps of blaring colour here, and a few solitary buds there.

They were all intact though, no leaves missing, no petals crumpled. Even the soil surrounding the small plants looked just as he’d left it.

This smelt of Jack.

In fact, it reeked of that infernal boy.

“Jack!” The storm had arrived, and Jack was prepared.

“Yes?” Jack looks up with wide blue eyes, pausing from doodling in the margin of his notebook, assignment seemingly forgotten.

“What did you do to my garden?” Fists clenched tightly to his sides, nails digging deep into his calloused palms.

“Nothing, I’ve been here all along. Is there something wrong with it?” The boy shuts his book, diverting his attention onto the severely agitated man before him.

“Is there anything wrong? Is there anything wrong?! I’ll tell you what’s wrong, mate, everything is wrong!”

The way Bunny’s nose flares is reminiscent o his nicknames sake.

Jack raises his clean, delicately boney hands.

“You need to calm down. There’s nothing wrong with the garden, it’s just as you left it before you went off.”

“He has a point, Aster, maybe you’ve had enough sun for today, does things to one’s head after all.” Pitch places a hand on Bunny’s shoulder, leading him towards the backdoor. The dirt encrusted hands go unnoticed by Bunny, who’s too at a loss to notice such details.

“Yeah, it has been a scorcher, I’ll fix it up when it’s cooled down a bit.” He waves to Sandy, whose face and clothes are smeared with dirt, wearily, closing the back door behind him.

Waiting until he was well out of earshot, the three remaining outside double over.

Wiping tears out of the corner of his eye, Jack turns to his two accomplices, smiling with mirthful eyes.

“How long do you think it’ll be until he notices?”

Sandy has fallen onto the ground, frame shaking with silent laughter. Pitch fares little better.


End file.
